For a brighter future
by Taku94
Summary: Konoha has been lost to Danzō. After a civil massacre, captured nin are forced in to ROOT and turned into tools, regardless of how they resist. Sasuke and Naruto surrender themselves to protect the fleeing nin. Will they be able to end Danzō's regime? Will an unborn life provide the hope required to overthrow the madman and his army? Rated M to be sure. Violence, sexual themes.
1. Chapter 1

******Disclaimer****: I do not own Naruto, the characters and pretty much everything else is aaaaall Masashi Kishimoto! **_Cant believe I forgot these disclaimers..._

* * *

**A/N: Story ****Key:**

**Lines: Separate different times or locations.**

**Italics: Flashbacks. (Usually within lines)**

**I keep running edits on chapters to suit critisicsm, shouldn't be many changes, I'll post in A/N when serious changes occur!**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

The infallible stone protrusion relentlessly prodded at her exposed shoulder blades and spine, ruthlessly punishing every painful twist and contortion with a chilling, bone bruising ache. The dank, chakra-infused oxygen hung thick with the stench of sweat. The icy bitterness of the ancient stone prison pierced the young kunoichi's lungs, biting at her extremities, snarling as its harrowing torture harassed her.

Hyūga Hinata twisted against her bounds, feeling the stone peel at the skin stretched across her shoulders and spine. Hot pain spat at her, electric spasms of shock shot up her back, snapping her neck inward as her face twisted with concentration, fighting against the navy strands of hair mortared to her face with frozen sweat, in order to catch a glance at the ritual.

Two figures stood to either side of her, obscured by the shadows.

A lean blonde teen stood by her feet. Calculating and precise, he stood painting complex, ancient seals of kanji, circles and tomoes in crimson blood. His unused wrist on his right arm was damp with blood, turned black against his white skin from the lack of light. His face, shaded from the dim candles lit behind him, seemed expressionless. The murky light from above fared no better to reveal his features, a gleaming Konohagakure Hitai-ate casting pure black shadows over his eyes. Six whisker-like markings, seemingly cut out of his cheeks, quivered as his lips trembled slightly,

'Sorry, Hina-chan...'

The two other figures closed in, raising kunai; the muted light dimmed the rose coloured hair of the kunoichi on the right contrasting the silver-white hair of the shinobi on the left as it flashed indignantly against the inky shadows. Their faces were expressionless and as cold as the stone grave beneath her. Hinata let out a muted scream as the ninja slashed across her wrists, wincing as they squeezed at her exposed cuts, rushing to extract the thick, hot, black liquid gushing from her screaming wounds. Mechanical pain pursued logic, twisting the quivering muscles along her back and arms to escape the searing pain. The stone acted as a grater, tearing at her delicate moving flesh. Again, Hinata forced back a scream. _This has to be silent. If anyone caught us- _

A green light emanated from the nimble fingers of the kunoichi on her right, working along her wrists as the cuts closed with a sizzling hiss. The blonde shinobi's face was aglow in the eerie green light, completely alien and pale to his usual tanned complexion. His ever so slightly feminine cheekbones, jawline and sharp chin moved in alongside the deepest of piercing blue eyes, turned turquoise in the light, towards Hinata's paling face.

A kiss scratched along her neck, the warmness emanating from his face brought a small amount of life back to her exposed, chilled flesh as his heated breath caressed and coveted her skin as he pulled back. Her chest inflated from the tenderness and deflated, resonating forgotten warmth around her body.

The tender touch of the blonde shinobi's Fūinjutsu preparation tickled the kunoichi's numb senses, increasingly so as the fingers and brushes worked higher, lavishly licking at her thighs. The warm blood quickly bit into her skin, as the chill from the air froze it in place. He worked past her thighs, drawing circles around her hip bones. A primal sensation snapped the Hyūga's eyes open as her mouth contorted into a small 'o' before widening, slipping her head back to rest her neck and close her eyes with a comfortable sigh as he worked inwards, electrifying emotions, sensations and _memories_ clashed inside the woman's mind before she felt his tentative fingers paint on her stomach.

A pulse of foreign energy from inside her reacted to the shinobi's proximity, yearning for the father's presence.

A spiral was drawn, along with a set of trigrams to encompass it. The tickling sensation searched for a way to twist Hinata's body by spasms but with an iron resolve, she held still. This part was too important. Silently, the blonde's lips twitched,

'the old seal…' as he completed the recognisable markings on her stomach, 'transfer…' as he completed a delicate series of kanji and finally, he emitted a gritty growl, 'Jinchuriki…' adding a ring of tomoes around his new seal, backing off to check for the slightest error.

A sickening surge emanated from Hinata's stomach, evaporating the insincere faces the others held. Panic struck at Hinata's chest and heart with rapid quakes. With a flash, the blonde was by her as the green ambience from the pink medic-nin's fingers turned to a blue haze as a choking, caustic bile lurched it's way to the back of her throat, 'Sakura?' the blonde questioned, his smooth voice hummed low yet laced with worry and nerves.

'Nothing to do with the seal, yet. Just similar to morning sickness, I guess.' She reassured as her hand ran down Hinata's surprisingly lean stomach, wincing slightly at the cold flesh. '

Kakashi-sensei?' She questioned, 'How long have we got? We still need Sasuke-kun, she's getting too cold.' Hinata felt her head being turned to the right, the blonde's finger pushed gently from her collarbone and up her windpipe, causing the kunoichi to spew up on the stone. The rank taste of the liquid irritated her throat and burned at her oesophagus, a rabid creature tearing with vulgar claws.

'Just in time then.' A reply emitted from a muted yet powerfully confident voice, strung high with authority. Hinata caught an air of nervousness and despair tied up in it. 'An hour or two before he catches on and the hunter-nin arrive, everyone who's left is in position outside or in the field'

A figure, face hidden behind a snake like ebony mask, highlighted blue in the haze and clothed in a swirling blue-black cloak appeared. Matching raven hair danced across the shinobi's lifeless mask. Though unseen, through the shadowy eye-holes, nothing affected the inky onyx colour of his eyes as he appeared where the blonde had stood a moment before. From catching everyone else's eyes alight from the blue haze, Hinata saw a flash of relaxation in Kakashi, Sakura and the blonde. _Her blonde._ Uzumaki Naruto.

As quick as the moment lasted, all three lashed out with bloodied kunai and pointed them towards Sasuke's throat, a wave of killing intent sliced through the still air and impacted on the figure. He made no move to stop them.

'The ROOT organisation was created by Danzō, now the Rokudaime.' He sneered at the name,

'Trained to have no emotion, they are logical, ruthless killers. It's been rumoured that it's been three months since covert operations against Konoha-nin and villagers alike have been performed. Wether those targeted opposed his rule or were just deemed too close to any previous Hokage is questionable. I reckon the bastard just gets off on scaring people.'

Sasuke's shoulders dropped, his head hung just a little, 'It's also been two months since... That day. The day that ROOT-nin engaged every non-ROOT Kokoha-nin. ANBU, Jonin, Chunin, heck, even the low level genin.' With a click, Sasuke let the mask fall from his face, onyx eyes losing what little light remained, his slim, angular face paling past his usual snowy complexion, crystals of beaded sweat betrayed his cold demeanour as his speech went on,

'Captured Kinoha-nin were forced to join ROOT. Naruto-dobe and I engaged Danzō. We traded our services to stop the massacre while everyone regrouped at the Hollow, an old Aburame clan shrine of sorts. If it weren't for Naruto-dobe's Fūinjutsu protecting our minds,' his face allowed a small smirk in contempt towards Naruto, crumbling away as fast as it came, words twisting in to venomous acid as he spat every sour syllable,

'…We,_ like others_, would have already succumbed to Danzō's training methods.'

The steel gazes from the three ninja flickered and died out at the mention of their lost comrades, the kunai fell to their sides, limp and useless.

Naruto became enveloped in his black cloak as he darted closer to Sasuke to catch him in a swirling embrace. The question as to his identity and loyalty dropped as he answered the question unanswerable by enemies or unprotected allies before they could ask him.

Naruto bowed and retrieved Sasuke's mask, passing it to him, noting the red marks around the eyes and hood of the cobra. He returned a slight, unpractised smile. No one had reason to smile any more. As they parted and shook their heads clean of the memories, both shinobi took to the task at hand.

The hard stone walls echoed as Naruto and Sasuke closed in on Hinata, security seals, privacy seals and chakra containment seals glowed as Naruto passed them, idly toying with a few as he closed in.

The pair split at the base of the stone and walked in parallel, coming to a stop at the seal on Hinata's stomach. A solemn tension arose between the two as piercing blue locked onto a bottomless onyx. The still air became energised as the two anticipated a jutsu, anxiety spiralled around them as the serious situation bit down onto the pair with unrelenting jaws.

Hinata gritted her teeth and looked up to the shinobi stood by each side of her sides, nerves and anxiety waging war against her sense to stay silent. The cold air bit into the throats of the two shinobi as they murmured hand seals,

'Snake… Boar… Ram… Rabbit... Dog… Rat… Bird… Horse… Snake!' Their breath fought out against the steely air, warm clashed with cold as they closed their eyes and focussed in the condensing air. Purple and blue visibly emanated from Sasuke and Naruto, seals to hide the huge chakra signature glowed effervescent as they absorbed the tremendous amount of stray chakra produced.

Waves of snaking purple and pulsing blue energy washed across Hinata, Kakashi and Sakura. They felt the light dizziness caused from huge chakra emanation, their senses sharpening as their own chakra lurched and fought against the overbearing waves. Blue and purple danced around the room, the black stone walls hidden in the inky shadows became energised and shone bright as sapphires and amethyst beneath the searing white glow of the seals.

Sand and pebbles, having laid dormant on the ground became revived and rose into the air, each pebble, a gemstone and sand, a colourful mist, ebbing and flowing through the air as waves break on a beach. Sakura and Kakashi warmly gripped Hinata's shoulders as the three became one with the energising colours.

As the two combined the flow into a portal behind them, a ghostly figure emerged. All colours evaporated, stones and sand dropped, birds killed in flight. The hyperactive energy choked as the air became as dead as stone.

His angular face, stone grey and shallow as a corpse, skin stretched unnaturally thin against prominent collar bones and ribs, each fighting to break the emaciated, undead flesh above. Thick white hair, a spiky pine forest blown over by the harshest snow created a shocking halo around the eternally dying face and dressed in an overbearing translucent kimono, the Shinigami, the God of Death summoned again.

'Two summoners? What are they planning?' mused the corpse of a god before Naruto and Sasuke clapped, cracking a thin lipless grin from him, dagger teeth sunk into his tantō, their fates sealed.

* * *

Pink cherry blossom leaves flitted peacefully in the light morning breeze around Konoha to the chimes of birdsong from the sugary pink trees beneath, completely unaware of a brooding discussion occurring in a small concealed clearing beneath. Naruto let out a sigh as he met Sasuke's dead eyes, knifelike sunbeams dappling his face as it cut through the cherry blossom, his face solemn, only partially reacting to the words as they clung to his dry throat.

'There's no way around this, Sasuke-teme,' he muttered, voice limp with the weight of depression, 'in a few days, no one will be safe-'

'-Dobe,' Sasuke cut in, his brow dropped to a serious expression as his eyes pierced Naruto's, the dark rings beneath the dimming blue becoming darker every day, analysing his words with a harsh intent, 'your seals protect our minds, no one, Danzō, Ibiki or Ino have got through or caught on yet. They all believe we're just not responding to his methods as fast as usual.'

Naruto's head slumped, his mind whirring against the exhaustion of the last few nights, clashing with the lightless eyes and stone expressions of Ino and Ibiki, comrades lost to Danzō's ROOT training. Gone were the two proud comrades he once knew, left only were the shells of flesh and bone resembling them.

Ice water chills shivered down Sasuke's back as a chilled breeze whipped up, the grass began to tremble with fear and the birds in the tree took flight to escape. It was as if nature had predicted what his comrade thought and would conclude. They both clung tighter to their shivering black cloaks as the cold began to creep in.

'Sasuke-teme, what i-if the seals weren't permanent?' Naruto choked, breaking the moment's silence. Sasuke's eyes snapped wide, onyx becoming an angry ruby, his face wrought with rage and panic, dry oxygen clung in his throat and choked him, threatening to not release its grasp until his answer was found. He wasn't lying.

'_**No, the boy isn't lying.'**_ Erupted a violent voice in Sasuke's bewildered mind. The air around him and Naruto began to boil, grass wilted away and the cherry blossom leaves in the air browned, curled up and died, sizzling slightly as they spiralled downwards towards scorching earth. An acrid taste prodded at Sasuke's throat, his nostrils flaring, under siege from invisible smoke.

'Kurama.' Sasuke acknowledged, he scowled, having only just become used to the demon fox intruding into his mind over the last few months, a requirement to keep him and Naruto in secretive conversation around other ANBU.

_**'The seals have but hours before they fail. Then, the worm's mind games will take hold over you.' **_

Sasuke's eyes wouldn't close, unable to recover from shock, tears formed as noxious, choking smoke funnelled into his exposed eyeballs, stinging aggressively as it clouded over his vision, his head slumped and his mind fogged.

His blurry eyes locked onto a huge cage, bars as wide as logs. He was stood in a pool of stagnant water, browned from whatever stinking contaminant had seeped into it. Eyes burned at the physical stench as his stomach desperately raged to release its contents.

_**'Boy!'**_ Kurama's voice exploded from an unknown location, Sasuke threw up his hands in front of his face as the shockwave ripped through the room, tearing up the pooled water and churning it into the air, releasing a visible vile stench. From behind the bars, two orange marks cracked through the strangling shadows looming behind them. Blistering red rubies opened as Kurama's behemoth presence enveloped the cage.

Sasuke spun as a hand clapped on his shoulder, sensing a deep killing intent, broadcasting the deep dread he had done so well to hide. Lashing out, he felt his fist impact on unforgiving metal, sending a black pile crumpling to the ground. It shuddered before him and giggled.

'Dobe' he smirked, the terrifying aura of the dark room evaporating as he eyed the laughing blonde spectacle before him as he sucked on his cut knuckle. Tears had formed in the quaking shinobi's eyes, unknown whether it was due to the impact or prank. In here of all places, the two finally had something to laugh about.

'Sa-sasuke-teme!' Naruto chuckled, 'it's not like you've been here befor-' interrupted by his own strangling laughter, Naruto lay backwards and winced as his quivering sides exploded. Sasuke's defeated smile shattered and his head bowed, deep set feelings of regret tugged at his heart, pounding the cheered inflated muscle to a tender pulp.

'I was so full of hate then…' He spluttered, feeling aching waves of nauseous remorse pulse through his chest. He had wanted to kill his brother before him then, his eyes, stinging, clamped tightly shut. _Never again._ Suddenly, a spark, his mind lashed out against the maddening upset,

'Hey, Dobe.' He smirked, sincerely glad his voice hadn't failed him, 'This part of your mind is damn dirty...' Kicking the stagnant water at Naruto, an evil grin splitting the Uchiha's face, onyx eyes gleaming with mirth as the stench prodded at his wrinkling nose, 'I wonder if I should visit the place you keep your favourite memories of Hinata? She couldn't have conceived all by herself...'

Naruto's face twisted into shock and with a cheeky grin, a giant caged door in the distance clamped down with a resonating clang. Sasuke mentally noted the position of the door with a quivering chuckle,

'next time, Naruto-dobe…' Images began flooding Sasuke's mind of Kakashi-sensei swelling up with libido as he poured his one visible eye, an inversed 'U' of perverted pleasure, over an orange spined, 'Icha Icha' novel, featuring two very recognisable characters on the front page.

'_**That's enough.' **_Kurama sneered, as tremors cracked in the waterlogged concrete below. He had enjoyed pranking the boy who, with blazing red eyes locked onto his, had dared enter his abode with such radiating arrogance some time before. But an unfamiliar feeling of weakness tugged at his muscles and dragged him to collapse, leaden, to the unforgiving ground with an earth shattering crunch.

Kurama knew his time and chakra were running short, as was the time the two before him would have together.

_**'The plan, Kit.'**_ The fox boomed. Sasuke's head whirled back from the spectacle of a collapsed Bijū around to Naruto, ignoring the shockwaves triggered from the beast's voice and fall, rocking every rickety joint in his legs.

Naruto had pulled himself up to sit. With one leg tucked towards his chest and the other one extended outwards, he placed his palms behind him and leant backwards, his shoulders slumped in defeat as his chest deflated, allowing a deep sigh to escape. A remorseful mist hung above his face momentarily before dispersing as his cloak hung limply on his slender frame, soaked and sodden in the stinking mire. If Sasuke hadn't known Naruto better, the droplet running down his face could have been mistaken for a tear.

An air of exhaustion and defeat from the master and beast around him made Sasuke unwittingly gulp. 'What the hell is happening?'

Naruto's head slumped towards Sasuke's direction and caught his stare, the cool, deep sapphire eyes that usually twinkled with life and ecstatic, infectious, happiness looked almost colourless and opaque. A blank seriousness hung itself on Sasuke's shoulders, a cloak of lead. A solemn density bore down upon every crushing emotion until he couldn't take the entrapped sensation no longer, his heart beating against the oppression, spurting hot anger in to his throat. 'What plan?' he hissed venomously.

Naruto broke the glare and looked downwards, more droplets hissed from his stinging eyes as they carved burning ridges down his face. His chest inflated with thumping sobs as his stomach churned, an angry spiral of rage and despair.

He didn't ever imagine telling Sasuke could be so painful.

_**'Boy,'**_ Kurama quaked, _**'so far, my power has fuelled Kit's seals against the mind manipulation. But we Bijū don't take… Too kindly to **__**F**__**ūinjutsu, a sort of weakne-' **_Kurama snarled at the word, emitting a low rumble that shook the shinobi's bones,

'-so he can only supply us until tonight.' Naruto spoke, the tortured, rehearsed rhythm of his tone suggested that he had run this announcement through his mind time after time again, though the quiver from his vocal cords betrayed his practise, 'As Kurama mentioned, Sasuke, once they fail, our minds will fall to the lessons Danzō forced upon us. We'll end up like Ino. Unthinking ROOT tools.' Naruto's voice seized at the prospect. His very words clenching his throat closed as he tried to stammer more out.

Blurry memories, images of the times in a ROOT bunker manifested between Sasuke and Naruto. A plain white kanji symbol glowed in the centre, blurring the images out. Kurama winced slightly, feeling a harsher tug at his weakened reserves. The seal fizzled and faded momentarily, static, allowing one memory to broadcast clear for a split second.

* * *

_Sasuke and Naruto stood clamped to a wall, facing a kunoichi opposite._

_Her face shone silver as broken moonbeams infiltrated through a barred window above. Her arms concealed behind her back as glittery chains extruded from behind her, locking her wrists to glistening wall behind. She was on her knees, cut from the harsh floor beneath, a silver white blindfold clutched at her eyes as a brash Konohagakure symbol burned black in the centre of it. _

_As her mouth ruptured a cough, black blood sprayed outwards, a fine, murky mist. More blood oozed down her chin as the blindfold began to alter, blackening around the eye area as the piercing stains beneath oozed through. Ino's head lolled sickeningly to one side as her tongue was pinched from her agape mouth by unseen fingers. A seal of three lines and two more broken in the centre, arranged into a column were burned black onto her shining tongue. The kunoichi let out a meek gurgle as thick, oily-black blood welled up in her throat. _

_The hand grasped out and gripped her long silvery hair, a click released the tight chains as they danced mockingly, chiming in the muted colours of the silver moon, the hand gripped tighter, snapping shining strands of hair and began smashing her head into stone slabs below. She lay coughing as inky blood pooled around her broken figure, drowning in broken silver light and the glittering dark oil._

* * *

Both shinobi recoiled from the image, eyes and hearts blistered by the unravelling scene.

_**'The fates of us all, at the hands of Danzō, should we not act.' **_Kurama cut in, his gravelly voice was grave and sincere. Sasuke's lips trembled before he could stop.

'Act? And how would we-'

_**'-We do not allow him the weapon he wants. My power.' **_

Sasuke's face boiled over with rage upon the realisation. Eyes blazing red, his words, acid. 'You are all he wants? Why torture everyone else? Why massacre their minds and bend them into weapons just to get to you? Why should everyone suffer because of you?' The dullest laugh echoed from behind Sasuke, his eyes caught Naruto's quivering, crumpled figure as he choked and coughed on his own voice, his face wet with clear streams,

'How do you get Kurama, Sasuke? You attack me. You hurt my friends. You ruin my way of life. This is how you get to Kurama. You get me.' Naruto's eyes became harsh blue steel, his voice returned, as powerful and low as his intentions as he caught Sasuke's eye in his glare, 'but he won't get his weapon, you see? Yet we can't stop him having me. My mind will crumble after the seal fades. But Kurama will live on, in another.' A wave of realisation splashed ice water down Sasuke's chilled spine and sharpened his numbing mind.

'Naruto, even if we could move Kurama, there's no one but you who could possibly contain him, even since he became tolerant of us. You told me yourself, it's the Uzumaki in you, the sealers, the clan famed for vitality that enabled you to survive the transfer. Never mind the inhuman natural reserve of chakra required to hold him, even if he isn't fighting to get out. No one fits this plan.' Sasuke placed his hand on Naruto's head, ruffling the wet tresses of blonde hair, 'There's no known Uzumaki strong enough but you, dobe.' Naruto's eyes glanced upwards and stiffened, a resolve of steel undented by Sasuke's words,

'What about the Uzumaki growing inside of Hina-chan?'

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**A/N: Thanks for the reviews and follows! To the anon reviewer, thanks so much for the criticism, I've adjusted this chapter to fit your input and tweaked a few lines. I haven't written for years and I didn't know how to address the speech paragraphing. So much for the A in English GCSE's all those years ago, huh? Criticism is more than appreciated and I apologise in advance for jumping on the Japanese honorific bandwagon. So feel free to tear me for any mistakes! **

**Taku94 out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer****: I do not own Naruto, the characters and pretty much everything else is aaaaall Masashi Kishimoto! **_Cant believe I forgot these disclaimers..._

* * *

**A/N: Story ****Key:**

**Lines: Separate different times or locations.**

**Italics: Flashbacks. (Usually within lines)**

**I keep running edits on chapters to suit critisicsm, shouldn't be many changes, I'll post in A/N when serious changes occur!**

**Rehauling this chapter and the next one. It should be finalised today (31st Oct 2013)**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

Sasuke's battered head hung heavy as his hazy mind throbbed, tortured and torn. His stomach, filled with churning acid as his chest drummed with nauseating drum beats. He began to think back to what the dobe had asked of him, causing his fists to clench into white balls as he fought back sizzling tears. He had to get back to the Hollow. The others needed to know the plan.

* * *

_Naruto's eyes glanced upwards and stiffened, a resolve of steel undented by Sasuke's words, 'What about the Uzumaki growing inside of Hina-chan?'_

_Sasuke's head bowed, caged desperation beat upon his heart as anger boiled his blood. His brother, the dobe before him who did everything to bring him back home and keep them together, was being forced to pass on Kurama. What else could he be planning on losing? Whatever Naruto lost, Sasuke promised himself to inflict it upon Danzō tenfold._

_Naruto stood, his cloak hanging heavy as the stinking water clung to it. A childish excitement fizzed and bubbled in eyes as he prodded his index and forefinger in to Sasuke's forehead, pushing his head back so their eyes could meet. Naruto cocked his head quizzically to the side as Sasuke's eyes snapped open in shock at the gesture. Naruto grinned and wiped at the trembling tears escaping Sasuke's eyes. A deep bubbly blue once more met an exasperated ruby. 'I have a gift for you Sasuke-kun.' Naruto began, a faint smile forming on his lips._

* * *

Screaming leaves and whirling winds whipped through Sasuke's hair, tearing at the eye sockets of the restricting mask. Landmarks and clearings became an ecstasy of blurring colour and melting shapes, shooting backwards as he rocketed forth. The merciless midday sun rebelled, hazing Sasuke's vision with unyielding blasts of light and fiery heat. Trapped inside his mask, Sasuke's face was alight. A maelstrom of perspiration and glare fogged his vision and boiled his perceptions. The sweet desire to remove the prison clawed at his mind, as his fingertips tingled and itched to act. ROOT-nin never removed their masks and now wasn't the time to expose himself.

An explosion of shining white blossom and warm, wet dew furtively spiralled and danced around the shadowy swirling ex-ANBU as he landed. His feet were but a whisper as they touched the rugged ancient bark. Sasuke's eyes blazed crimson as he whirled into a crouch. Eagle eyes trained on to every minute detail around him, tracing the teasing tingle of dancing blossom, tracking the fall of dew on the lush emerald grass thirty feet below. Sweet, sugary air filled his chilled nostrils and kissed his unwavering lips. Chastising breezes blew whispers into straining ears as he touched for the comforting cool leather of his chokutū's hilt. 'Paranoia,' he spat, backing slowly towards the rugged trunk behind him, a recoiling cobra.

An itchy tingle on his hot, wet scalp spun the Uchiha, his fingers, lightning in speed and precision, plucked a retreating Kikaichū insect from the air. Clutching her struggling ebony body between his nimble index finger and thumb, the slight panicked buzz hummed strong as his twitching ears caught the air, the humming multiplied.

Below him, every blade of grass erupted into a spiralling ink storm. Converging on to the target, the Kikaichū buzzed and whirred, raring for blood. Shock blasted his heart as he hissed into action, releasing the female from her prison. Whirling around in the screaming wind, he caught only a straggler shook by the tailwind.

Dispersed as soon as they engaged, Sasuke could feel the tearing killing intent of a million scolding compound eyes as nature stood still.

An irritated buzz nipped at his senses and turning slowly, he eyed the single female as she turned to face the solitary trunk and flitted inside the solid object. Irate, Sasuke winced, he was about to get an earful from some baka about the bugs, he knew it. He reached out and gingerly touched the withered bark with gentle fingertips. Matte, white kanji splashed across the crevices as he felt a tiny drain on his chakra. With another anxious glance behind him, he was swallowed by the blossom tree.

* * *

Cracked earth and arterial roots, some of them metres wide, encompassed the overwhelming cavern in a gloomy web. The Hollow, home to the old guard of Konoha. Foggy shadows claimed the distant horizons of the area. Icy clear water fickly trickled around the columns of roots and dirt above.

A musky odour filled her lungs as she strode between parted seas of shinobi in battered, olive flak jackets, gnarled, grey-black cloaks and tattered blue jumpsuits. Tenten held her head high, her dominating hazelnut eyes sharp steel, focussed only on parting the slowly dispersing crowd.

Her exterior stood confident and strong but inside, she shuddered as her heart collapsed, a deflating balloon shrivelling into ash at the sight of the broken shinobi all around her. She ignored her grimy white blouse and torn, charred, loose red-brown three quarters that hung limply around her legs, bound in places by unrecognisable blades, daggers and chains, dull with shadowy malice as they clutched at her slim legs.

'Today, I will stand strong. I'll inspire these ninja today.' She thought to herself. Fixing a lone tress of chocolate hair into an efficient tight bun affixed to her head, she looked around at the dirt cage they all cowered inside. Shame panged at her chest upon that thought and the 'decorations' helped nothing.

Hundreds of Konoha hitai-ate littered the crawling roots on the walls. The countless pieces of dirty cloth and dull metal hung crucified by kunai. Some were accompanied by shredded photos, some browned with cracked, aged blood. Some hung, betrayed and murdered, by deep, horizontal slash wounds across the well-worn and dulled metal, others still glinted and gleamed, spared a kunai by being wrapped around the overburdened roots. She could feel her unwavering lips begin to quiver and masterfully held back tears at the sight of her own old hitai-ate, abandoned to rust next to an old photo of her grandfather. The lonely old kenjutsu master. She smiled as an intense warmth blazed back into her chilled heart.

The air hung thick with spiralling dust and grime. Low, dead voices emitted from the parting masses of the sombre uniformed figures. As the crowd thinned, Tenten's eyes blazed. A raging orange fireball, suspended high above the motley crowd beneath, blared brash light over the centre of the cavern, beaming at a dusty, compacted arena which waited expectantly, the centre of the Hollow.

The energy in the room was full of respite and hopelessness, low ebbing's and throbbing's of chakra weakly pulsed among the crumpled and battered Konoha-nin who had stood tall and proud on the battleground only half a year ago, steaming with angry chakra and raw battle cries as a reborn Uchiha god bore brutal judgement upon them. She was going to change their attitude back.

In the area stood two shinobi, one with a ragged nin-dog. An inferno of dirty white hair bristled outwards from the overbearing creature, as he paced behind his shinobi, his size and movement that of a prowling lion as his squinted eyes bared raw fury. The shinobi he eclipsed stared through feral black eyes, his pupils glinting slits. His arms were crossed in a seemingly arrogant manner as snarling fangs pierced his bottom lip, his brow set to glare at his opponents. A tangled, matted forest of ash brown swept above his head highlighting the brash red markings stinging the cheeks of his shimmering orange face. The shinobi extruded his wild atmosphere as he drew his razor sharp claws against his ruined leather jacket and let out a snarling howl.

Tenten allowed herself a strangled smile at Kiba's cocky composure, but wept for him inside. She like many others, couldn't rid herself of the images, the screams and the iron stench of blood, the day of the Rokudaime's coronation, the day of the military 'correction'. The memories flooded back.

* * *

_Tenten stood with the remains of the Konoha 11. Sasuke stood next to Naruto. The imposing gateway behind them offered safe haven from the smoking, screaming village thrashing in agony before them. She knew this gate would become a finish line for the lucky. _

_She caught Hinata recoil as her stomach audibly lurched. Naruto's eyes bore down on her, visible panic tearing at his quivering pupils._

'_Kiba! Shino! Take Hina-chan with them!' Naruto screamed, his finger striking forwards. His powerful voice shook the earth and erupted against the thundering olive and black swarm of fleeing Konoha-nin._

_Shino and Kiba searched for a way to argue. But to no avail. Shino knew of an abandoned Aburame shrine, an old Kikaichū hollow, and Kiba was needed to navigate towards it. They took their old teammate and led the stampede through the gate._

_An olive tidal wave of battered Konoha-nin surged forwards, fleeing the village. Tenten darted sideways, two blurs followed. Standing, she looked to see the sea separate around Naruto and Sasuke, their hair whipped backwards and their cloaks flew, black banners of hope, against the tearing tsunami daring to stop them. They tipped their heads forwards slightly and began idly wandering forwards through the stampede, smirks on their faces._

_Behind her, Ino rolled over and Shikamaru twitched. She straightened up tall and flashing them a stern look, took charge. _

'_Let's move!'_

_Smoke stung her eyes. Bloodied, contorted bodies, civilian and shinobi alike, hailed the damp stalls of the marketplace below as echoing wails resonated inside her skull. _

_Crimson rivers thrashed across the once white sand of the snaking pathways. Increasing her speed blurred the scenery in to crimson, dirt and black blurs. The stench of coppery blood stained her nostrils, unescapable._

_Flying kunai tinked of Tenten's wild blades, shadowy figures dispersed at the bite of her snarling fists and curved daggers. Blood playfully flecked her forearms until an ivory mask zipped out in front of her. Her teeth crushed as an impact shot her backwards. Thick, strangling blood gurgled and warmly hugged her throat. Pressure forced her shoulder down. The ROOT-nin blocked out the sky. A kunai drove towards her face._

_With a heavy grunt, Shikamaru and Ino kicked at his shoulders, landing on them. The shinobi swirled, the pair crushed his shoulders under their sandals, skidding along the red sand. Tenten flipped to her feet. Eyes ablaze with anger, her mouth boiling with blood she flung herself forwards at the pinned man in the ivory mask. Her fist drove forwards with a crack. Dark fingers ran up the bone white mask. Black bled crimson as the cracks oozed warmly, the shadow slumped._

'_Troublesome,' the shirker moaned._

_A huge explosion rocked the three. Tenten's stomach churned as her hands stung in front of her face, stones nipped and stuck to her bloodied limbs. _

_In the distance, the quivering bricks of the monumental Hokage's tower barely stood above the murky smoke and stinking blood. Vibrant orange and purple blazed and spiralled at the crown of the pillar._

_Tenten smiled at the prospect. 'Naruto-san, Sasuke-san. Make him regret being born.'_

_They took off towards the tower, wildly slashing at the glinting metal senbon rain that bore down upon them. Coming to a clearing, their eyes flashed with horror, shaking fingers only just able to hold their weapons. Tenten had to stop herself from buckling. _

_A long pathway led directly to the tower. A pathway covered with shadowy cloaked ninja. Their marble faces bore into the three ninja with lifeless black eye holes. They stood among piles of twisted bodies. _

_Piles of wild and ravaged ninja lay dead or howled at huge open tears at their flesh and throats. At their sides lay curled up mountains of fur. Teeth and claws drenched in blood, every inch of sticky, red and matted fur was embedded with thousands of bleeding needles. _

_Other hooded ninja lay, contorted and deformed, their eyes hidden behind smashed glasses or goggles, singed and burnt. Their blackened skin cracked as baked earth, the soft flesh beneath lay screaming with boiling blisters. Gnarled bones were seen through the cooked pink flesh of their hands and necks. The stinking sizzling skin on their faces had burnt back, revealing agonised skeletal grins. Around the burnt ninja, innumerable pin pricks of fire squealed in a tortured frenzy, before dispersing into tiny clouds of smoky ash. _

_The air attacked Tenten's lungs with the retching smell of cooked flesh and metallic blood, thickened by the fog of black smoke forming from the fallen bodies piled around the statuesque ROOT-nin. _

_The entirety of the Inuzuka and Aburame clans lay piled amongst pools of bubbling blood and smoky ash. Their corpses, desecrated by the ROOT-nin that walked upon them. _

_A hunched ROOT-nin tore into the bloody corpse of an Inuzuka with rapid glee, slicing through flesh with huge metal claws. He turned to face the trio and howled before he pounced._

* * *

Tenten shuddered as ice gripped her spine. Even now, within the Hollow, the old non-ROOT ANBU within the crowd quietly stood in slightly separated groups. A separation that wouldn't be tolerated. Yet their reminiscence to the ROOT-nin burned the memories of the other shinobi and perhaps, the minds of them themselves.

None of the non-ROOT ANBU could face wearing those lifeless masks anymore.

So there stood Kiba, tall in the arena. An example, Tenten hoped, that would show the other ninja to never back down, despite their losses. But most importantly, the rabble needed to remember to fight together, like the trained Konoha-nin some seemed all too happy to forget that they once were.

She finally turned to the other shinobi. He stood against the pair, awash in an aged white and red cloak, emblazoned in kanji. The mark of the Sandaime. Another young shinobi, about the usual chunnin age, to have had lost his close family completely. He had grown colder over the years. Loss seemed to shadow the boy like a predatory wolf hunts prey, casting an icy spectre over anyone who neared him. His face used to be full of tireless energy and his black eyes used to bubble with life,

'A lot like Naruto-san once was.' Tenten sighed to herself.

The shinobi idly twiddled a long black staff in his fingers before it became a whirling hurricane high above his head. Short, rough cut brown hair bristled with anticipation over a rare, gleaming konoha hitai-ate and energy bristled as he slammed the staff down. Dust erupted into the air twenty metres away. The trio flew into action.

The kunoichi stood solid, baring two katanas as fangs and claws flew forwards. Adrenaline ablaze, arms as cyclones, her swirling blades bit bone and teeth as she pirouetted on the spot. Lashing a leg upwards, she caught the feral shinobi's throat and threw him into a howling backflip. She smirked at the raging bruise, 'Gotcha! Kiba-_chan_!' She winked.

* * *

Sasuke's head pounded as he tried to figure out why there was a sound of a fight going on.

'Explain. Now. The ROOT organisation, objectives, leader and your presence here?' Tattled a dry voice. Sasuke's vibrating retinas became hot coals harassing the back of his eyeballs, blinded by the genjutsu, ninjutsu, whatever,

'Aburame Shino...' He seethed.

There was a long pause. Sasuke sensed his signature and looked towards him. Calculating, Sasuke wondered why he was being given the silent treatment.

'Incorrect. Your response and inability to access this position without engaging the guardian Kikaichū indicate your loyalty to Danzō-sama, compromis-' Blinded and sensing overwhelming killing intent cutting through his heart, clashing with scorching anger and a titanic, crushing concern for his loyal brother, Sasuke erupted.

'Would you quit the lecture and nitpicking Shino! This isn't the time for-' A strong hand gripped his shoulder from behind, paralysing pressure pinned his spine as two prods tore at his pressure points.

'ROOT, Sasuke-kun. Now.' A husky masculine voice grilled. Sasuke's mind fogged over.

'_I can save your mind, Sasuke.' Naruto's eyes closed as he grinned._

'_We do it, tonight. The Shinigami… …Half your soul… …The memories... ...All gone..._

_Sasuke couldn't bottle his weakened voice, Naruto-kun needed to stop with these plans, he cried out to stop his brother from continuing 'But what about you, dobe?Hinata carries your-'_

Sasuke's teeth gripped and grinded tight as he forced back the boiling memory tearing at his mind. He began talking, slowly.

'Danzō, he-' his mind fogged.

_Emotions betray the ideals of Konoha, for we are her weapons, sharpened, unthinking, unfeeling. _

Sasuke shook his fazed mind into action, a hollow ringing stinging the back of his mind, a seal lit up inside his head as a foreign, flaming chakra burned away Danzō's voice within.

'-he leads ROOT. Naruto-dobe, he-he has a plan to stop him. But it only goes as far as getting us out of here.' Sasuke crumpled, his knees buckling from the towering pressure of Naruto's plan, his spine seething with spasms.

'Okay, Shino-kun.' Grilled the voice behind Sasuke, 'Release him.'

Sasuke's eyes opened to glorious, stinging vision, as his retinas stilled. Undercutting panic lifted as he fought back chilling memories of previous threats to his sight, his chest lightly elated. Two fingers released the pressure off his back as a gruff hand gripped his armpit and stiffly lurched him up to his weak feet.

Maito Gai sighed, his head slumped downwards to face a shinobi alliance hitai-ite dangling from an uncaring hand. He straightened and stood tall and solemn as he hung his hands behind his back and staring longingly at the flame above. He took uneasy steps towards it, his shadow flickering behind him, malshapen and bruised.

'Flame of Youth…' he mumbled with spite. The shinobi's old brilliantly clean composure was lost to torn, dirty, green fabric. Loose tresses of matte black hair waved and danced free amongst the usual straight gleaming bowl cut. Sasuke mistook a few grey strands for shine as the man's dying coal eyes turned towards him, his faced aged by shadow and shrunken cheeks, tanned leather in the orange light.

'Hmph… the irony,' Gai glumly muttered, casting a gaze towards the dead hitai-ate, littering the walls.

'Irony?' Sasuke questioned, a glaring rage of impatience and urgency clashed with the wavering respect for the broken figure before him. He knew he still felt lost without Lee and thinking better it better to humour the defeated former jonin than to boil over. He waited. Fists clenched white as his internals threatened to explode violently, he pretended to listen as his raging red eyes scanned the hazy area and found what he needed. A crowd.

'The fact is, our new-found enemies refer to themselves as ROOT-' the voice paused, '-when it is us, in reality, who reside among the roots of a tree. That, is ironic.' The same voice from before was drawling, humming with a boring repetitive rhythm. Shino appeared before Sasuke in a crouch, dispersing ebony insects to the already saturated, dirty air.

'Unless of course, Gai-sensei is mistaken. If he's referring to the literal flame beneath the roots, threatening to burn them then he is, of course speaking metaphorically considering the Will of Fire within us will, someday, burn ROOT. Shino's black tinted goggles flashed upon his last words, his drawl became steel sharp as his hands reached into his pockets. His body seemed to turn very stiff momentarily, before he further straightened up.

'Logic dictates this so.'

A husky growl surged from Gai's throat, 'metaphors, Shino-kun? No, irony. We love our village. We would die for it. Yet here we are, living in a hole hanging and slicing our beloved hitai-ate like nuke-nin.' His hand gripped the alliance headband with a trembling fist.

'Aye, the Flames of Youth are dying indeed.'

Sasuke left the musing pair behind, disgusted, his face contorted into stone, shoving his way through the crowd towards the arena. Hot hate bubbled up as he mercilessly shoved past dulled green flak jackets, tattered black cloaks and patched blue jumpsuits. A pulse of killing intent extruded from him, causing further spiralling outrage as the crowd split without a word. Not bothering, or too scared, to question his motive as the inky ROOT look alike surged towards the sparring trio. His head ached.

'_-I'm dead to you the second we do this, Sasuke. You need to understand. I'll be a danger to you, to Hina-chan, to the baby.' _

* * *

The dust separated between the kunoichi and feral shinobi. Her eyes snapped open at his evil grin. She spun. The staff just missed her as she bent backwards, forcing chakra into her feet to keep her up. An impact clipped her ribs. Recovering, her katanas flared. A red and white cloak blazed forwards as she brought the blades to spin. The staff spinning high above his head met swirling swords at her wrists. Searing sparks spat out at the clash. The kuniochi's blades failed, flying from her hands. She whipped her wrist. A kunai tore at the boy's throat. Connecting, he dispersed into a log. The kunoichi whirled, a hawk eyed sentry.

A staff erupted from the earth below, connecting with her chin. Blood spewed from her mouth as she fell backwards. The boy sprung upwards and lashed back down. She failed to see the staff come down on her.

A flash of sapphire lightning nimbly danced along a thin chokutū, inches from her face. She could feel the wind hit her skin as the staff bounced off the blade. Ringing vibrations cut through her ear drums, stinging her mind and senses with toe curling power. Gritting her teeth at the noise alone made her appreciate something.

Konohamaru had improved.

Tenten glanced up as the light danced along her 'saviors' angular pale face. Ruby red eyes clashed against the sapphire light dancing along his features. Her mind washed out the dull, aching pain from her chin as she felt as her movements slow, yet her heart fluttered as her cheeks warmed a little before she bit her lip, waving off the adverse effects of Sasuke's Sharingan.

Sasuke smirked, the strange sensation of being impressed fluttered in his chest and drowned the raging hatred for the weakened ninja crowded around as he offered her his hand. Kunoichi usually struggled to stop the new passive effects of his Sharingan. He could see through the kunoichi's inspired plan, to try and restore some spirit among the ninja before them. But it wouldn't work. They needed inspiration and he knew who that excitable, knuckleheaded inspiration would be. Who it had always been. Naruto.

He hadn't noticed that many ninja gawped in awe at the chidori blade technique he had just applied.

Kiba recovered his composure from the dusty ground. Did weapons really have to make so much noise? He rubbed his sensitive, shrieking ears and attempted to properly maintain his dizzy balance.

'Sasuke,' he half muttered, half moaned, 'Were kinda busy, y'know. Putting on a show for the boys and girls. Gotta keep the guests entertained, yeah?'

Sasuke's steely glare caught Kiba's. Kiba straightened, his concussed composure evaporated, he knew this was serious from the stern look on the Uchiha's face. Little did he know Sasuke was just testing his Sharingan's effects on males. It wouldn't do him any good to have men blushing and falling over themselves whenever he activated it.

'Urm, sorry? Sasuke-San?'

Sasuke smirked again, 'Intimidation on males,' he thought silently, 'that, I can deal with.'

Tenten and Konohamaru stood silent too, as the other ninja bristled with interest and slight anxiousness. Sasuke's trial seemed to be reoccurring all over again.

Sasuke held their gazes as he scanned the crowd intently with blazing rubies, he could see the flow of chakra between them begin to relight as their interest was sparked.

'ANBU-senpai, Konoha-nin,' He addressed, 'you all owe a debt to Uzumaki Naruto.' A smirk threatened to split his cheeks as he saw the crowd light up at the name. Murmurs grew louder, glances became bustling conversations. The classroom faced Sasuke. One by one, all of the ninja, jonin, genin, chunnin, ANBU and their shadowy seniors saluted. The risk had been worth it.

'Hai, Uchiha-san!' The crowd erupted. The ground shook slightly from the chakra surge that followed.

Tenten was ecstatic, bubbles inflated and danced in her heart as she glanced around past the crowd to catch Guy saluting towards Sasuke. Shino stood in the shadows, releasing a bug somewhere.

'Well then,' Sasuke continued, hiding his quivering voice masterfully, barely able to believe the ninja before him.

The ninja that had spent so long judging whether he was loyal to Konoha or not after the war followed his word so easily. Naruto had spent weeks by his side upon his return, defending him from the glares and insults they sent him, before attacking him with other insults anyway. He even fended off a few Sasuke fan-girls. How they even existed after his crimes was an insult to female intelligence.

Furthermore, he stood in ROOT standardised gear. Had the time not been running desperately short on his seal, he would have thought something was amiss. An air of silent anticipation hung heavy over the crowd, contrasting the thick thumping of Sasuke's thick, heavy heart.

'This is what we must do.' He began.

* * *

**A/N: Check out my profile for updates on new chapters. Apologies for this chapter arriving late. Taku94 out .**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer****: I do not own Naruto, the characters and pretty much everything else is aaaaall Masashi Kishimoto! **_Cant believe I forgot these disclaimers..._

* * *

**A/N: Another overhaul, finished 31st Oct 2013, I think the site isn't loading all the lines, however...**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Tenten and Sasuke whipped through black, angry foliage as the glaring moon hung heavy in the hazy ink clouds.

She couldn't read the shinobi, not like she ever could or had even tried before. But something was different. In between quick glances, there was a certain despair shadowing around the onyx eyes that swallowed the silvery light cast upon them. His lips couldn't quite contain a slight quiver.

Thoughts snapped at her as the moonlight loomed upon his solemn features. 'A shinobi such as Sasuke-san should've been better at hiding emotion by now,' she acknowledged, her mind ablaze with silent questions,

'why was she going to the old Namikaze shrine? What were the old team seven doing there that affected every ninja within the Hollow? Why were they all preparing to flee towards a mountain range between the Wind and Fire countries? '

Sasuke looked forwards and clicked the dead faced mask back on. Huge silver white walls towered defiantly in front of them. Despite being able to clear them with ease, they stood tall and intimidating, brashly flashing silver against the creeping shadows around.

Tenten felt a silent shudder tingle up her spine. Never would she have had thought she would react like this to Konoha, as it lay before her lifeless and dead. Stained pathways bled silver light as mourning buildings, once lively shops and bars, stood huddled and defeated, sporting injuries from the forgotten battle. Glittering smashed glass, shadowy holes and charred black burns riddled the rooftops and faces of each scarred location.

Nor did she ever dream of returning without an army behind her after that day.

Nerves began to bite at her thumping chest as the pair slinked behind a pair of watchful shinobi.

Cutting through the village to reach the Namikaze shrine north was a deathwish but Sasuke didn't give her an option. Her fluttering stomach couldn't settle among the deathly silence of the village, an invisible air of death and suppression smothered her senses as she struggled to evade the fluttering patrols.

They shadowed a patrol, tracing their silent steps, before clearing another wall to escape the villages dying clutches.

'Movement!'

Sasuke snatched her hand. Her face lashed against swarming leaves. Traitorous light swamped them as they flew through cackling branches. Kunai zipped past, thunking into solid trunks. Tenten's feet touched wood. Sasuke's clutch released. Spinning, they clashed with the ROOT-nin.

Tenten lashed forwards, spurting chakra into her foot. It bit into a whirling cloak. With a painful twist, a hand contorted her ankle. Savage metal claws buried deep into her flesh and sent her crashing into the cold ground 30 feet below. With a snarl, she veered back around, into a feral crouch. Her spine tingling in agony, she felt for cold, familiar handles of steel at her sides, snaking chains uncoiled from around her thighs. The kama blazed in the cruel moonlight, glittering chains beneath the sickles tingled with anticipation. The clawed shinobi swooped upon her. She recognised him from the massacre. Tine for revenge.

'Kama technique: Chain storm!' She exploded, whirling, glittering chains spiralled at the shinobi above.

Chains tore at his limbs. Wind screamed at his masked face. The earth below blurred, a smashing force brought him flying down. Tenten sprung. The shinobi bombed towards her, latched onto her chains. The Kama whizzed, she sliced forth, snapping through bone. A warm black haze polluted the crisp night air, smattering her skin. Her lungs tasted the iron stench of it. The shinobi crouched deathly still behind her before shuddering and slumping. A round object rolled merrily along the floor, leaving a murky, black trail in its wake.

'Bout' time, Tenten...' Sniggered a voice. Pain lashed at her ankle and spat up her spine. Biting at her lip she looked upwards. Sasuke carried three bodies stacked upon his shoulders.

'The Namikaze shrines just up here, Sakura'll fix you up after-'

'-after what?' Tenten enquired hotly.

Sasuke's head dropped a slight angle as he touched down on the floor next to her, '-nothing...'He shuddered, 'just whatever you do, keep Hinata safe after this, we will all have to, we owe Naruto that much.' He turned away to face a discreet stone monument buried within splintered planks in the distance.

'You wait outside, I'll need you to keep watch,' he murmured. A flash of exasperated frustration flitted across Tenten's lips, she opened her mouth to argu-

'-Tenten, be safe. Please.' His voice shuddered with authority and yet, a stark concern. His blazing red eyes caught her stare with a powerful intensity as he came a bit closer than usual. She wanted to argue back, she wasn't weak and to hell with being ordered around by the baka who dragged them through Konoha. Yet she just couldn't argue her point, his stare was irresistibly dominating. His proximity made her want to place her palm on his chest before he closed in... She blushed a little before the shinobi dispersed in to a cold vortex of shrivelled leaves. Tenten shook her head angrily. Thoughts of Neji trickled back into her mind as a stinging corrosive acid.

'Damn Uchiha-san and his freaky genjutsu.' She seethed angrily before crouching in to a ready position amongst some foliage. Her skin crawled in the cold night air as the chilled blood from the clawed shinobi began to bite at her exposed flesh. That, and Sasuke's behaviour. She allowed herself to shudder a little.

* * *

…'_Kakashi-sensei?' She questioned, 'How long have we got? We still need Sasuke-kun, she's getting too cold.'…_

…'_Just in time then.' A reply emitted from a muted yet powerfully confident voice, strung high with authority. Hinata caught an air of nervousness and despair tied up in it. 'An hour or two before he catches on and the hunter-nin arrive, everyone who's left is in position outside or in the field'…_

…'_Snake… Boar… Ram… Rabbit... Dog… Rat… Bird… Horse… Snake!'…_

…'_Two summoners? What are they planning?' mused the corpse of a god before Naruto and Sasuke clapped, cracking a thin lipless grin from him, dagger teeth sunk into his tantō, their fates sealed…_

* * *

An eerie breeze swirled across the room as Naruto calmly stepped forwards. He walked past Sakura and stood behind Hinata. He messed with a clasp at his neck and allowed the black ROOT cloak to slide off, to reveal his bare torso. The cloak dropped like a stone in the dead room. Naruto too, was covered in complex seals painted from his own blood. A melancholic, undecipherable chanting emitted from the god before the two.

Naruto undid the blood soaked bounds from around Hinata's wrists and gently pushed a hand under her shoulder blades. Her arms fell limp and numbed, relief swarmed inside her as the limbs began to move again. His warm hands sent tingles along her skin, soothing the cold but stirring up the searing pain along her grated flesh. Raising the stiff and grazed kunoichi in to a seated position, he slid in behind her and sat upon the stone.

Allowing his chin to rest upon her shoulder, he pressed his bare chest firmly in to her shuddering back and inhaled. A hint of lavender fought off the slight hint of sweat. Her hair was cool and pleasant to the touch, fine and silky. Her skin, though she must've been freezing, was cool and maddeningly irresistible as he touched her neck with a light kiss and exhaled deeply.

His warm breath slid down her spine, scattering soothing signals along her aching back. She dipped her face inwards and brushed her lips along his cheek. She felt tickling shivers quake along her sides as his nimble hands playfully slid down her ribs and settled at her waist. She desperately hoped for him to pull her into a tight embrace, to feel the warmth, the closeness, the desire for just one more time. A deep, humming sadness lurched around in her beating chest, a visible shudder travelled down her freezing body and a stray tear slid silently down her face.

The seal on her needed to be visible, until the god began working. Despite the soothing, familiar warmth emanating from her man pressed up close behind her, she couldn't help but feel like a painfully saddened target for the undead god before them.

'Shinigami-sama,' Sasuke began, pretending not to observe the spectacle of closeness the two in front were extruding. His fingers trembled at the prospect of them being separated but this was the only way, in the time they had left.

Naruto had made sure that there was no other options to pursue and he wouldn't allow Sasuke just to die for them. That had been that.

Sasuke slid off his own shadowy cloak to reveal the original Shiki Fūjin painted in Naruto's blood from earlier. By some miracle, none of it had flaked off during earlier events.

'Your seal has been altered,' he continued, his voice commanding and unwavering. He knew better than to show superior powers any form of weakness. 'I am to be your first conduit, you take half my soul from me.'

He turned away as the chanting slowed to a stop. The room filled with blank light as a set of prayer beads began to spiral and glow around the corpse's shrivelled forearm. Six orbs blazed an ominous grey halo around the figure. The god was ready as a curse mark snaked up his arm. He plunged it forwards.

Sasuke summoned every painful, evil thought he had ever had.

* * *

_A distraught boy slumped in a pool of black blood as his parents lay twisted across each other before him. Vengeance. A raging purple chakra and a sea of blazing orange curse marks blared along his raging skin. Bloodlust. A long haired shinobi, white pale skin, licking his lips with an impossibly endless tongue. Power. He stood in black next to others. The room hung heavy with genjutsu. Lee, Ino, Choji and Naruto stood with him. He could see their eyes, lifeless and matte. Burning orange chakra set his mind ablaze as the jutsu were dispelled one after another, after another. He and Naruto winced and dropped to their knees. The others lay crumpled on the stone beneath. Helplessness._

* * *

A cold spike plunged through Sasuke. Chilling him to his shuddering bones, the shinobi's breath froze in his throat before he could exhale. He quivered, fighting against his relenting knees to stay standing. The images swirled and evaporated as an icy spectral arm pierced through his back, clutching and grasping inside with ravenous, feral fingernails.

Shinigami thought about the task at hand. Eating different parts of different souls would require them to be split. He thought about the two chakra's that govern mortals. Yin chakra relates to one's spiritual energy and imagination whereas yang chakra relates to one's physical energy, their vitality.

Completely draining the yin chakra would destroy their mind, whereas removing parts of it would damage parts of their memories. It could change who they were. Yang chakra was more dangerous. Removing all of it would kill them. Removing parts of it could produce tonnes of effects. It could age them or do the opposite. Heck, it could simply weaken them or simply just effect their will to live and/ or survive.

Shinigami's arm felt for the soul within the shinobi, wondering how they would show him what parts of the souls they wished to sacrifice.

'An Uchiha sacrificing large amount of yin chakra. Interesting.' The god thought.

The boy was focussing on one part of his soul, he could feel the purple yin chakra, the mortal's memories and energy pulse through it,

'tart, bitter yin chakra...a sharp tasting soul indeed!' The god grinned with malice. But he knew the feast, and fun, were just beginning. This mortal before him hadn't had it easy. The torturous, desperate and hateful memories of life affected the soul, generating bitter yin chakra. Shinigami licked his lips at the prospect of a perfectly balanced meal as he looked forwards. Single souls were always unbalanced.

'I need to focus for the next pass!' Sasuke commanded within himself, his teeth gritted, Shinigami-sama hadn't taken enough yet..

Two more images clouded his mind. The hate hadn't quite gone.

* * *

_Blue lightning. A blonde lay underneath him, slowly sinking into the water below. Infinite surges of blood spurted from a raging wound tore out of his stomach, the boy was smiling. A long haired shinobi, drew closer, red chakra blared around him in a huge veil. He mouthed some words silently, two streams of blood cascaded from his mouth. He raised two fingers and prodded Sasuke's forehead with them, before slumping into the wall behind him. Leaving a wet trail down Sasuke's face. Shameful regret._

* * *

A hand extended. With a flash, it plunged through Hinata and reached Naruto. Hinata's eyes snapped open. Already cold, her insides turned to ice as the hand pierced her stomach. A lurching, spiralling warmth clashed against the cold in her stomach, before falling deathly cold.

Surges of panic hummed at her chest as she felt the tiny fire within turn to ice. The waves overcame her thumping heart and steeled resolve. Thoughts screamed at her mind as she imagined the life within diminishing in ice and dying.

Twisting, contorting and thrashing, an angry growl roared from her raw throat as her maternal instincts shredded her sense. Warm arms flung around and clutched her chest, restricting her thrashing and pinning her closer to the safety of the father behind her. Harrowing sobs echoed from her stinging lungs as she fought, unable to escape. The seals on her exposed flesh began to illuminate.

Naruto clutched her tightly as his mind fogged over, his chest heated with aggressive love for his pained partner pinned within his hold. Ice forced its way into his chest as his bright eyes numbed into shadowy matte blue.

* * *

_The day Iruka-sensei smiled and handed him his hitai-ite, the day he went on a mission with his sensei and comrades, the trials of the chunnin exam, his face inches away from the rouge coloured hair of another Jinchuriki. Jiraya-sensei, his training, the Rasengan, the father he never had. Tsunade-sama beamed at him, a crystal necklace strung around his neck, meeting both of his parents within his mind, the proud respect in the eyes of villagers that once stared at him with hate on the day that Nagato-san fell. Meeting Killer B-sama, overcoming the dark side of himself and befriending Kurama. Locking with the Uchiha god, Sasuke-teme finally turning back to them and fighting alongside the kage. The pair stood above the defeated god, turning to see Kakashi-sensei drive blue lightning through Obito-san. His first date with Hinata-chan, the way she blushed and hummed with an awkward air, returning back to the unconfident girl everyone had forgotten the woman once was. Those heated, screaming nights as they thrashed, scratched and fought in ecstasy. The time Kurama and he pranked Sasuke-teme…_

* * *

Shinigami clutched at this perfectly pure, truly yang chakra imbued, crystal-blue soul. His growling hunger for it must be sated. He scratched off a few dark bits gathering beneath it, noticing how an orange chakra was burning away at it and gripped it tightly. Not enough yin chakra had come off the other soul to balance the meal, yet hunger took over.

He pulled backwards, ravenous for the soul mixture. Suddenly, his hand lurched downwards, as the seals on the kunoichi's body between them glowed. His prying fingers found a recognisable, orange fire in the stomach of the concealed shinobi.

'Kurama...' Shinigami seethed. 'So, I see. An extraction. From the shinobi to the kunoich-'

'_**-No, you fool, I am to be placed inside the child within her.' **_A snarling voice boomed inside the god's mind,

_**'I'd do this fast too. It appears to me that the child is dying under your wretched temperature. Do you think they'll allow you their souls if you kill my next unborn container?'**_

'Very well…' The god cackled, 'and do not think that you will not be punished for your disrespect, beast.'

The hand withdrew sharply from Naruto as a tiny mist left his shuddering lips, with it, a gleaming blue light, a murky purple one and a huge stream of blazing orange followed.

Hinata felt a huge surge of rising, fiery heat torch her insides as the cold pulled through her. In an instant, she froze back over. Shuddering, she winced as she felt the tiny energy within her stomach relight and swirl into an overbearing maelstrom of ignited, panicked heat.

Shinigami cursed as he diverted the huge stream of orange in to the relative pinprick of a target. He had let slip a sliver of the perfectly delectable blue soul, which had seemed somewhat attached to the orange. Oddly enough, still too much yang chakra remained. This blonde was some mortal, his vitality was ridiculous, Shinigami hadn't even managed to tear out all of his yang chakra in his soul. If these mortals wanted the blonde dead, they were in for a shock.

'No, matter.' He seethed, grinning with spiked teeth as he realised what he'd do to Kurama, 'Prepare to suffer, fox!' He clutched on to a miniscule part of the orange stream and kept it back, mixing more of the foxe's yin and yang chakra into the colourful soul mixture swirling in his palm. He pulled his arm out of the stomach of the kunoichi.

Greed reverberated within him as he pulled through Sasuke. He had lost some of blonde's yang chakra within the child and hadn't been able to remove all of it from him anyway. Despite this, the blue soul completely drowned the other souls in it's yang chakra, sweetening the mixture somewhat. The blonde must've had power over the fox and the Uchiha over in his lifetime. He felt for some more yin chakra within the Uchiha's soul, more of it reverberated purple. Shinigami licked his lips as he cursed himself for being too quick to leave this mortal's soul. Scratching away at the purple, the satisfied god drew back his hand and greedily glomped at the energised souls humming within his hand. He had made his souls slightly sweet again.

The atmosphere brightened in the gloomy room as Kakashi and Sakura darted forwards to catch the crumpling Uchiha.

Sasuke's chest heaved as he looked up to see Hinata slump backwards over an unmoving Naruto.

'_-I'm dead to you the second we do this, Sasuke. You need to understand. I'll be a danger to you, to Hina-chan, to the baby'_

Wracking, silent sobs beat at the inside of his chest for his brother before him. Pain twisted inside his stomach as he searched his memories to compare this too. To blame this on. Every bad image since the massacre flooded his mind, yet no pain came. No anger or hurt. He could see everything, hear everything, as clearly as the day it occurred, there was just no reaction inside when he relived them.

'_I can save your mind, Sasuke.' Naruto's eyes closed as he grinned._

Naruto-dobe hadn't wanted to remove his memories, just to tear out the pained part of Sasuke's soul, the parts of his yin chakra that had governed his bad memories, and the pain that was created from it. Tears began to stream down Sasuke's cheeks as he finally caught on to the unclear description of Naruto's 'gift' to him.

He could clearly remember everything Danzō had inflicted on them in his lessons, the genjutsu of rabid fingers tearing at his mind and eyes, the severe beatings his comrades had received and the state of lifelessness the 'successful' ROOT graduates had carried. It didn't affect him.

A shuddering clump lay on the stone before the three. Hinata had spun round, her legs twisted by the single bound holding her ankles together. Still caught in a loose embrace from the vegetated shinobi beneath, despairing sobs and wails had overcome her searing stomach, aching heart and frozen, torn muscles. Naruto lay beneath her, immobile. Dead blue eyes bore skywards as his face hung with a calm, unmoving expression. Tears, saliva and raw heat escaped Hinata's face, uncaring of her appearance as she angrily shook the shinobi to wake.

Sasuke was raised upwards by his remaining comrades both sending him a curt, saddened nod. Sakura's features looked ready to break, her emerald eyes quivered and watered and her lips looked shaky. As she turned her head away, hiding her face behind rose strands of hair, a slight sob emitted from her. Kakashi's black eye swallowed any light that struck his shadowed face as his head dipped a little. Even his savage bush of silver hair looked a little limp and dull.

Naruto had told them all before what would happen. What Sasuke would need to do.

'_-I'm dead to you the second we do this, Sasuke.'_

An explosion outside shook the cavern. Stifled shouts echoed around the walls.

'Tenten!' Snapped Sasuke, panic gurgled within his outburst.

'Kakashi-sensei! Sakura! Take Hinata! We need to go, now!'

Hinata looked ready to shred the two as they closed in. The fight left her though, remembering Naruto's words and what the baby within her now meant. It meant what Naruto had meant to every remaining ninja. Hope. Part of Naruto still remained within her, the others needed to know he hadn't left them. Should Naruto somehow survive, it wouldn't be him at all. Though this was best left a secret.

She turned to face Naruto's featureless face and forced a trembling smile. She reached for her jacket down the side of the stone and drew two pieces of paper. A photo and a note. Kissing them, then leaning in, she mouthed silent words before leaving a damp, tear stricken kiss on Naruto's lips. The ankle bounds were cut. She allowed herself to be raised shakily, then taken by Kakashi and Sakura before passing out.

Sasuke trembled as he clicked his cloak back in to place. Goosebumps speckled his arms and shoulders and defined muscles shuddered in the biting cold. He felt severely weak after losing a lot of his soul as he shakily drew his chokutū.

He felt belittled and young in the overwhelming presence of his friend lying before him.

The sacrifice Naruto had given to save him and pass on hope for everyone else was an act of a Kage, a Kage he had never become. Sasuke tightened trembling fists around the leather hilt as he raised his blade high above his head. His stomach shuddered and his heartstrings twanged with conscience as he remembered a time when he would have wished to do this.

'Goodbye, otōto-kun…' He choked.

A resonating sound of steel clashing with bloodied stone echoed around the sombre, mourning walls.

* * *

**A/N: LINES! I'VE LEARNED HOW TO USE LINES! Sorry for the short chapter.. Just like chapter 2, this was meant to be little more than a paragraph attached to what I'm now planning will be chapter 4. I apologise for the fact this story isn't really going anywhere at the minute. That should be fixed in the next chapter. As always, check my profile if interested, I keep regular logs on this story and maybe more if I get to writing. Thanks for the views/ follows, shout out to Voyna, who managed to accidentally attack my masculinity -before I read the rest of the review!- ;) Thanks for your ongoing support, Taku94 out. **


	4. Chapter 4

******Disclaimer****: I do not own Naruto, the characters and pretty much everything else is aaaaall Masashi Kishimoto! **_Cant believe I forgot these disclaimers..._

* * *

**A/N: Story ****Key:**

**Lines: Separate different times or locations.**

**Italics: Flashbacks. (Usually within lines)**

**I keep running edits on chapters to suit critisicsm, shouldn't be many changes, I'll post in A/N when serious changes occur!**

* * *

**ROOT will no longer be referred to a 'shadows' as it makes things unclear. Previous chapters have been reedited to suit this. -Thanks for the criticism, YamiChaos27!-**

**Chapter four finally grew a tail and got longer! ^^ Enjoy!**

**As of Tuesday 19th November, the chapters have been completed. I kept missing out little details and kept going back to tweak them. Chaps 1-4 are now completely finished. **

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Moon-stung silver and rose burst from the underground shrine's hidden entrance. Resting Hinata upon an ancient mattress among splintered planks, Kakashi looked up to the sky, latched on to Sakura's shoulder and launched a tagged kunai into the star spattered sky above. Gone to the sound of thunder, the pair eclipsed the moon, at high altitude. A cyclone of inky shinobi tore at a lone strand of silver below.

Tenten's eyes darted back and forth. Kunai and senbon licked past her as she darted between spiralling shinobi. She caught a fist, dragged a body towards her and slammed a Kama into his skull. Her wrist tensed. The blade was lodged. Twisting underneath him, senbon speared the body. She flew outwards, kicking at another mask, landing on the smashed pieces, crushing his head. Palming away a solid kick and spinning, her hands flashed.

'Ninja art: Needle jizō!'

Pirouetting, her hair spun loose. Masses of needle-like strands jerked outwards, ROOT-nin screamed, agonised and rolled along the ground around her.

Tenten slowed, her ankle flared with angry pain. Raising her arms, she blocked a kick, once, twice, before narrowly dodging a katana from behind. Dropping, she caught the wrist above her shoulder, snatched the hilt and pulled. Whirling around, she kicked the swordswoman, spun the blade and slashed her throat. Hazy droplets smattered her face, before she drove the hilt into the kicker's mask behind her.

Kakashi snatched Sakura's hand, flipped, released his grasp and forced her downwards. Focussing chakra, his free hand chirped, forming a disc of spiralling, azure lightning.

Sakura bombed downwards. Fist filled with chakra, she smashed the earth. Ravines gaped outwards, vesuviating with energy. Shockwaves swallowed shinobi, engorging hungrily on the bodies.

Tenten's ankle twisted in a crack. Her eyes snapped open, falling backwards. From a ravine, a shinobi shot forwards, an outstretched arm smashed a kunai towards her chest.

Kakashi shot towards Tenten. Free falling, he punched outwards with the disk of lightning. A black haze spurted out of the limb. Crashing on top of the disarmed shinobi, he dropped into a feral crouch. The man writhed beneath him. Kakashi's one eye twisted in to a demonic glare. Azure light danced over his mask and flak jacket. He snarled at the hissing ninja circling them.

He flew. Flipping through torsos, darting through a black, blood mist, he wrenched the volatile vortex through a rain of limbs and screams. Piles of ROOT-nin lay dissected by the lightning disk, an untold amount lay digested within ravines.

Kakashi twisted, 'Sakura! Recov-' she was gone.

Sakura sat on the mattress, sliding Hinata's loose arms over her shoulders. Standing, her back hissed in agony as Hinata's searing stomach stung the skin beneath her flak jacket. A twisting panic lurched within her own stomach and beating chest, she hoped that Hinata and the baby would be okay..

Tenten let her head fall backwards, a gentle vapour exhumed from her mouth and rolled down her neck as her shoulders dropped in relief. Drawing a senbon, she took her dark, silky hair and began twisting half of it into a bun.

'Thanks for the save, Kakashi-sensei!' She smiled, her eyes closed as her features stretched into a childish grin. Directing attention towards her lean chest, she pointed out a nick in her clothing dangerously close to a vital organ.

'I'm glad that you got the Fourth's Hiraishin no jutsu down, I'd have been heart broken if that'd connected!'

Years of ANBU training, losing a teammate, killing the other, losing his sensei, his own student turning on him and finally killing a twisted version of his old close friend still hadn't hardened the man enough to prevent him from shuddering at the pun.

Tenten turned away from him and limped forwards. The pile of bodies lay contorted and twisted over one another, running in a broken circle around the pair. Silver moonlight highlighted the soaked cloaks that they had donned as they swam in pearlescent pools of each other's black blood. The warm, sickly stench steamed above the pools, fighting the crisp night air with an odious vapor.

Finding a glittering handle, Tenten weakly placed her injured foot on a shinobi's skull, grabbed the handle and with a slight grunt, the blade squelched as is was dug out of the man's head. A dark soup spat out of the mask, eagerly bubbling downwards to feed the hungry grass below.

As the pair stood within the grisly circle of bodies, Kakashi couldn't help but wonder how Danzō's elite ROOT units had fallen so easily to three ninja of varying experience. True, he was ANBU and still a solid Jōnin at worst. Tenten could make a tokubetsu jōnin in kenjutsu and Sakura had been personally trained by a sannin at Kage level. All of them had seen heavy action and it showed. Yet the so called elite ROOT-nin should all at least be better than ANBU level. Something was amiss and Kakashi knew it. Tenten kicked at a limb as she dodged the pools of blood.

Sakura glided towards the pair, dropping carefully to her knees, ensuring Hinata lay still on her back, to attend to Tenten's ankle.

'Hmm.. Deep lacerations around the Achillie's tendon. The level of blood loss and lack of clotting suggests an anticoagulant has been applied. They'd have been able track you within minutes of leaving a trail like you would've, Tenten-san. ' A slight glare of distrust cut through Tenten from the medic's emerald stare. Sakura shook her head straight, Tenten would have had left a trail, but she wouldn't be out to betray them.

Her miraculous escape from near the Hokage's tower when Shikamaru and Ino had both been captured still managed to cast a fog of doubt upon the medic's mind, however.

'Shouldn't be too much trouble to fix.'

Sakura slipped off a torn glove as her palm glowed green. Tenten winced as an audible hiss burned her raging skin shut. Sakura raised herself steadily, wincing as the intense heat emanating from Hinata's stomach stung, feeling as if the skin on her back had been burnt into charred leather.

They could wait on Sasuke no longer. This had been expected, executing Naruto would be a painfully slow process for the him to perform. They all knew of the bond they shared, it wouldn't be right for anyone else to do it though.

Kakashi eyed his rag-tag squad, 'Maa.. I don't like this.' He thought before speaking quietly, his voice steel, 'we move south-west. We'll rendezvous with the allied ninja past the western plane. Tenten-san, stick close to Sakura-kun, it's up to us deliver Hinata-san safely.'

A huge explosion from the south shook the fleeing squad.

* * *

Danzō was fuming. In front of him lay a forty foot tower of screaming, charred wood caught in an inferno. Dark smoke clogged the fresh night sky as the heavy moon began to choke behind swirling ash and hot smog. He dug heated splinters out of his leathery skin, cursing at himself for not checking for explosive seals upon the traitor's little hideout. The Hollow, it had been called, he remembered, his spy had told him so. Blood emerged from many of the pinpricks left from the splinters. Yellowy fluid stained the bandages of his right arm. Close. A couple of ROOT tools lay splayed out in front of him.

The captured ninja from Iwa hadn't proven themselves as all that useful, so shielding their esteemed master against the blast had given them a hint of honor in death.

'An honour they didn't deserve, of course.' Danzō coughed, wheezing amongst the smoke, 'Enemy spies like these... Captured none the less.' He roughly kicked one of the useless bodies. Danzō sorely missed the days when ROOT was comprised of only elite Konoha-nin. However, the civil war hadn't done his numbers well, so lower ranking and even foreign ninja had to play their part under his service, even if they were Iwa-nin. He spat on both corpses.

He was experienced at making people see his way, regardless of who they were or how they could resist, he rubbed his right arm softly. Few could resist his methods and hence, ROOT's numbers had swelled. All in the best interests of Konoha.

A fresh ROOT team swept to his sides. One of them sat to his lord's right, opened a scroll and with a puff of smoke, he began painting the scene before him in a summoned notepad, recording the heroic progress of his master's campaign.

Danzō craned his neck to the left, 'Pig, report.'

'Possible enemy forces moving from this position, approximately thirty-two degrees south-west. Estimated numbers range from one-twenty-six to two-eighteen. I suspect that there are a few genjutsu in place to mask their numbers.' The masked kunoichi drawled.

Danzō nodded in acceptance. He had thought as much. He allowed himself a rare smirk as he admired his handiwork upon the tool stood before him.

The heat that had once burned throughout the bossy kunoichi's voice had dissipated, broken into a deadened drawl. Despite the fact that her face was eclipsed by a porcelain mask, he knew her features beneath would be uncaring as she continued to betray her old allies. She stood straight to attention, yet composed herself loosely enough to protect him should anything happen. He had truly refined the young Yamanaka, she was indeed a freshly sharpened tool within his arsenal.

To his right stood two shinobi. The artist was his most complete and successful tool. He donned a tiger mask. The other shinobi's appearance seperated him from Danzō's usual tools. Instead of a swirling black cloak, the shinobi stood only in a thin layer of matte black spandex. Slight thickness' around the chest, abdomen and groin suggested underlying armour plates. The ridiculous bowl cut that the man once took pride in had been cut short to maintain an unrecognisance appearance. A porcelin mask shaped as a dragon hid his ridiculous eyebrows.

Danzō knew the shinobi was revered for his skills in taijutsu. He had fought off twenty ROOT operatives on the day he cleared out the traitors. His will had been difficult to break. Danzō had had to unseal his right arm to refine him. He severely hoped his time hadn't been wasted, he would've been easy to kill on that day. The shinobi required a test to see if he had rid himself of his pointless emotions. First came the issue of his two most important tools going off the grid.

'Pig. Fox and Cobra didn't report in earlier. A guard patrol went quiet from the village before a contigent went dark close to the Namikaze shrine to the north. Find the pair, neutralise if necessary. They are to be brought back alive. Any others are to be eliminated with great prejudice. This is an S-rank mission, failure will not be tolerated. Understood?'

'Hai, Hokage-sama!' The kunoichi disappeared in a whirl of blossom.

He watched her go before turning to face the others.

'Dragon, Tiger, the army has been readied. You are to mobilise our forces. I want the traitors eradicated. Leave none of them. They're just past the western plane, they seem to not be moving. I'm calling a council meeting, report when the mission's done.'

'Hai, Hokage-sama!' The pair choroused.

Danzō turned away from them. His mind whirring. 'Yes, a fine test indeed.'

'Dragon! Before you leave. I have a condition for you both. You are to exterminate Maito Gai.'

'It shall be done.' Dragon finished.

'Good. Ignore my orders to finish the battle, you both report to me upon his death.'

'Hai!'

'Hokage-sama,' the artist whispered, ignoring how his master could have such accurate information on the traitors so fast, 'what are those lights?'

As bright flames hungrily engorged upon the grass at the base of the charred tree, round beads of fire squealed upwards, buzzed in agony and turned to ash.

Danzō couldn't suppress a twisted grin.

'He was here.'

They disappeared without a trace.

* * *

The blonde shadowed around the edge of the ravaged clearing near the Namikaze shrine. With calculating eyes, she assessed the damage. Something large must've been summoned, large ravines cut through the earth, yet no tracks indicated this. Bodies lay dissected and ruined. They lay close together, whatever had attacked had been quick. They hadn't had time to separate and counter it.

'Hmmm... New recruits I guess.'

The only conclusion could be drawn that whatever did this was gone. As were her targets. She saw four tracks leading south west. The grass had begun to reclaim three sets, the other track looked fresh enough, they must be attempting to rejoin their group, with their fourth member travelling behind them.

'Why did he wait? They all emerged from the shrine.'

She traced the tracks, readied to follow them.

'What the?'

A chakra signature emerged from behind her. A kunai thunked into the ground in front. She dropped and spun. Senbon flicked into her fingers, yet they only caught air. She felt a kunai touch her throat lightly. An arm reached around her chest and dragged her backwards. Her breath was forced out of her lungs.

'Fast, yes. Fast enough? No.' A voice drawled from behind her.

'No one can be that quick!' She coughed. The ninja released her.

She spun, ready, before loosening up, 'Fox, of course.' She whispered.

She eyed the tagged kunai in his hand.

'Reporting for duty, Pig.' The blonde murmured. He clutched at his mask. He was damp with water and what seemed like a bloody solution underneath his cloak. The sharp night air tore through the thin cloak and bit at his cooling flesh.

Fox's head spun, he couldn't think straight. His mind clouded over as he tried to remember what had gone on and how he had got here, barely clothed and soaked. Nothing but childhood memories of beatings, failures and his Hokage's training regime had came to mind.

'I may have been compromised, Pig. I can't recall how I got here and Cobra's missing. Search my mind for clues.'

Fox sat down and coaxed Pig onto his lap. She removed his mask.

'F-fox! Your face!' She snapped.

'What's happened, Pig? This needs to be quick, we don't have time.'

'Your markings on your cheeks, they've gone.' she stammered, before shaking her head, closing her eyes and placing her palm over his exposed forehead. Fox slipped out of consciousness as Pig entered his mind.

* * *

Hinata's eyes slowly blurred open. A dark smudge in the distance framed the endless plane in front of them. Sparkling dew jumped and cheered in their wake as rolling black grass bowed before them. The blurred moon hung heavy, casting silver circles through the hazy clouds. Hinata felt horribly weak, her skin, muscles and eyes burned. Pain wasn't a new concept, yet she felt like fire stung her upon every slight movement as Sakura carried her. She couldn't help worrying if Naruto had felt like this his entire life. Naruto.

She looked back, her neck stung as she moved,

'By-Byakugan!'

Weak spots of blue emerged between blades of grass, before she caught a glimpse of Konoha's wall. The entirety of it bristled with chakra. Panic spat at her chest, her heartbeat fluttered as she felt sick. She hadn't seen chakra flows en masse since the war.

'S-Sakura-san!' Her voice whispered despite her rising panic.

'The walls! It's ROOT!'

Sakura swallowed her breath as she chanced a look around. The silver lit walls of Konoha swam in ink. The liquid drooled down from the walls, and surged forwards towards them.

Kakashi sensed the chakra signatures. They needed to move. He had noticed ROOT's lack of advanced ninja recently. Yet three squads towards the front had covered half the ground they had made in seconds. Danzō wasn't playing anymore.

* * *

Inochi snapped his head around as he sensed a huge amount of chakra signatures. He looked on from between the treeline. Their priority was to protect Hinata, he could sense that these nina weren't to be taken lightly. He pressed his finger to his ear and focused his chakra towards his mind.

'We need a squad to cover the VIP's escape, stat!'

* * *

Tiger spotted the small group of traitors. A papery white hawk tore through the air towards the group, carrying Dragon and he.

Kakashi saw it coming, his hands blurred as he turned.

'Lightning Release! Chidori Sharp Spear Jutsu!'

Five beams of blue light shot outwards into the sky. The hawk weaved in and out of the offending beams, becoming a white blur. Kakashi's brow dropped as he focussed. He opened up the beams, around the central hawk, before closing them.

'Hang on, Dragon!' Tiger erupted. The bird closed it's wings around them, barrel rolling towards the ground.

Hidden beneath the wings, they saw nothing, Tiger let out a pained scream.

Kakashi let out a triumphant sigh as a beam tore through the bird, severing a wing.

He turned and ran, he had lost ground, the four man ROOT squads were nearly upon him, senbon swooshed past his face as he readied a tagged kunai and threw it close to Sakura, 100 metres ahead. Two kunai landed by his feet, hissing.

'Shit! Hiraishin no jutsu!'

Sakura saw her sensei disappear in a fireball. She felt sick but had to run.

'Im sorry I couldn't save you sensei...'

'Save who, Saku-chan?' Came a politely joking voice.

He was running beside her,

'Baka.' She spat.

Tenten swooped behind the pair, spinning two tantō rapidly, sending senbon and kunai spinning away.

'Go! Now!' She screamed, urging the team forwards, the three ROOT teams had caught them.

'LEE!' Erupted a huge voice.

Flying over the team, Gai, Kiba and Shino joined the fight.

'Get outta here now!' Kiba barked, 'we've got a score to settle here!'

The three took a squad each.

Kiba twisted between two of his designated team, clawing at a shinobi behind them. The two turned, only to be bowled over by a lion of a nin-dog.

Shino stood still, surrounded by ROOT.

'Parasitic Destruction Technique: Typhoon.'

From each of the ROOT-nin's necks and the grass below, kikaichū swarmed, a huge spiral of ink twirled around him. He raised slowly on top of the typhoon, as dew and insects flecked the area, tearing at the ninja with voracious buzzing.

'This colony has been bred specifically to be carnivorous, I've refined their traits since the war. Unluckily for you, I had them develop an affinity for human blood, an affinity your organisation seemed to extrude as you destroyed my clan. Ironic, indeed'

A ROOT-nin screamed and thrashed inside the vortex, his flesh was stripped clean from the bone by the hungry bugs that crawled under his skin. Three jumped back, forming hand seals together in formation.

'Fire release! Fireball Jutsu!'

A huge fireball smashed Shino's typhoon. His eyebrows rised into his hitai-ite as the men performed an Uchiha art. The blaze erupted upwards, burning countless bugs as the flames licked at the shinobi's feet. A huge pillar of light erupted from the maelstrom as he was set alight at the top of the pyre, yet he remained silent.

'LEE!' Gai screamed, smashing into the anonymous squad. He kicked at a mask, smashing it, the ROOT lashed back. Blocking the punch, Gai caught the wrist. Dodging another kick, not releasing his grasp, he jumped into a spin, dragging the shinobi along. He smashed the others with the limp body before dropping the corpse. He screamed forward into more ROOT, driving fists into masks whilst twirling through seas of senbon.

'LEE!' He screamed desperately, his soul aching to find the closest thing to a son he had ever had.

He saw movement underneath what looked like a giant ball of paper. Stabbing a shinobi in the neck with his fingers, he flew forwards. He had seen two ROOT onboard the hawk. He could sense only one chakra signature. There was only one ninja he knew that didn't have chakra to create a signature.

The crumpled paper dispersed to reveal a two shinobi. One stood tall while the other crouched in a pool of shining blood.

'Gai-sensei, was it?' Murmured the uncloaked figure as he snorted, 'how are those Flames of Youth burning?'

'Lee-kun! Remember what you fought for? Your training! Your friendships! Your Springtime of Eternal youth!'

'Pitiful.' The shinobi became a blur.

Gai crossed both arms, blocking the kick. He narrowly jerked to avoid the second smashing his ribs. Off balance, he slipped backwards into a backflip. The guess payed off, Lee had gone to sweep his legs, only to face Gai's foot in his mask. The tiger face shattered, as did Gai's heart at seeing his son- student's face.

Blank emotion formed another mask underneath the shattered one. Small shards of porcelain snaked blood out of Lee's cheeks as they bit in, yet the shinobi's face flashed only with brutal indifference.

Gai couldn't face this defilement. His heart throbbed with pain as his nerves strummed with desperation. His energy rose as internal seals swelled and burst. Droplets of blood and water spiralled around him from the dark grass as he shone in a invigorating swirl of green light. His muscles clenched and breathed energy as his skin burnt over with angry, bubbling redness. Flames and seething anguish boiled his mind and invigorated his beating heart, his blood pumped, a thick, hot soup, through his readied arteries, feeding his will to fight!

'Yosh, Lee! I will show you what you have forgotten! Let your Flames of Youth be rekindled! Sixth Gate of View, release!'

He blasted forwards as a beam of light, his palms touched the ground as he twisted his hips in a handstand. Lee blocked a vortex of spinning kicks before one lashed upwards, catching his stomach beneath his crossed arms. Wind screamed at his eyes as he rocketed skyward.

'Morning Peacock!'

Gai appeared, smashing him with countless punches. The black spandex charred as hit after hit burned with rough friction. Flames spat out, as the ROOT-nin became ablaze with countless punches, lighting the arial clash against the black night. Gai finished, the acrid stench of burnt spandex filled his nostrils, before he slammed his palm forwards into Lee's chest. Lee whistled downwards before he smashed into the earth below with a crunching crack. Dirt churned upwards as the ground vomited from the impact. Guy swung downwards, his foot above his head,

'Strong Fist! Dynamic Drop!'

He bombed downwards into Lee's crater, smashing his ankle downwards into the shinobi's torso, the earth wretched again as the crater doubled in size.

Gai dropped to one knee over his student. His head bowed as the moonlight vaguely shone on the dead man's face. He could find no energy in the boys features as he stared skywards with an all too familiar blank expression. Gai's energy faded as he collapsed over him, holding himself above Lee with a single, shaking arm. He shuddered with woe as wet tears smattered all over the shinobi's blank, bruised and bloody face.

'Lee..' He moaned weakly, 'Oh, Lee-kun how I've failed you. In your Springtime of Youth, no less, only to be cut short by me, your sensei. What a fool I am.'

Gai touched his son-student's face, lightly closing his eyes. He reached for a kunai and placed the tip on his stomach, casting his gaze skywards.

'Kami-sama, be kind to my student. I will never fail anyone again.' Gai whispered.

'But you've already failed.' Whispered a voice behind him.

Gai spasmed as his chest wretched. Cold steel sliced through his spine and twisted within his lungs. With horror, he watched as Lee raised himself up with ease.

'You held back, didn't you?' He laughed in Gai's face, 'Baka, your weak techniques and flimsy ideals cannot finish me! End this pitiful traitor, Tiger!'

'With pleasure, Dragon.' the artist replied cooly, 'Inkwell jutsu!'

Gai's chest heaved as he felt the blade twist inside before his lungs filled with fluid. He opened his mouth one last time, breaking into a wide grin.

'Someday Lee, my most prized student. You will recover. Your Springtime of Eternal Youth will shine once more.' Gai smiled as his eyes closed, a memory drifted back Of their world renowned chorus.

'Gai-sensei!'

'Lee!'

'Gai-sensei!'

'Lee!'

He snorted as his chest heaved.

'Lee-kun, let me tell you that I will always be prou-!'

Lee's foot drove into Gai's stomach.

'Die in silence, traitor!' He spat venomously.

Gai coughed, as literal black ink bubbled in his throat and flowed out. His tear ducts popped as the thick fluid ruptured them, dribbling down his cheeks before it too ran free from his nose. His blood mixed with the warm ink sharpening the bitter ink's taste with a coppery salinity.

With a nod and a slight gurgle, Gai fell forwards towards Lee. Lee sidestepped to dodge the falling man, allowing him to crash face first into the soil at their feet.

'Hmm.. Stabbed in the back, a fitting end for a traitor who turned on Hogake-sama. Kami-sama has been kind. I hope he burns in his Flames of Youth in hell.' Lee spat. wiping his face clean of the dead man's tears. 'Disgusting.'

Above the pair, who stood deep down in the crater, a huge flare of chakra blazed.

'Come, Tiger. We will report to Danzō-sama of our success. Your arm will need to be repaired also.' Lee drawled, sparing a look at his teammate's withered arm.

'We will get revenge on Hatake Kakashi for this insult, should he survive tonight.'

* * *

**A/N: Well, this was a nightmare to write... My office trial curled up and died, so updates will be slowed even more now :/ I'll be doing them on my phone and after what happened with this chapter, I won't be surprised if I end up deleting a finished chapter...**

**Just gonna clear up the mess I've made with the justus. I know how to construct Japanese justus and they sound 10000000x cooler. However, I'm making my own up all the time, so I'm gonna keep them English. However, for the recognisable ones, I'll keep them Japanese as they're so much easier to write out! Ie. Shiki Fūjin =Reaper Death Seal and the Hiraishin? Sack the English for that!**

**I'm also embarrassed to admit the mistake that I made with yin/yang chakra in chap 3, I'll fix that whenever I can be bothered. Also, it appears that I've forgotten what speech marks are... Oh dear! Again, I'll fix that whenever.**

**Massive thanks to Waffles43, after a chat with him the other day, these fight scenes should improve drastically soon! Check out his stories, 'A Troublesome Chance' and 'Juubi Naruto' he's improving and it's showing! **

**Thanks ever so much to YamiChaos27, your criticism has helped the rehaul and should clear up a lot of the confusion with the story...Hopefully! Check out his stories, such as 'Maiden of the Light' they're full of original ideas and make a really good read!**

**Taku94 out, for now!**


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